


The Adventures of a White Fedora

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Real Person Fiction, Vampire Diaries RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 09:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10659813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: Ian's White Fedora. Will Travel.





	The Adventures of a White Fedora

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: Every story I wrote about NIan was written between December 2010 and January 2014. These are old and hold no bearing on how things actually were, are, or will be. I know Ian is married now, and I am not trying to be disrespectful. For all these years, I kept these stories locked on LiveJournal and protected, and it just occurred to me that these are just stories, and these are as much characters as any of the other fanfic I've ever written. It also represents a lot of my creative time and energy and I'm proud of these stories. So I'm posting them now, with the intent that others might enjoy them.

They get their schedules for the week, and Nina sees that they have a TV Guide photoshoot. She runs giddily into Paul's trailer because Ian's not there yet.   
  
"Did you see? Did you see?" she says, waving the schedule in front of his face, practically jumping up and down.  
  
He smiles at her and nods. "Crazy, huh?"  
  
They're going to be on the cover of TV Guide. How is this her life? She doesn't even know.  
  
The holidays are coming up, and they'll shut down working for three weeks, and she actually dreads it. She's been a working actress for many years now, but it's been this experience - being on set at  _The Vampire Diaries_  that has made work seem like the wrong word for what she does day in and day out. Work is the furthest thing from her mind as she drives in every morning, as she works 14 and 16 hour days, as she's sleep deprived and afraid she won't be able to remember her lines.  
  
It's the best time she's ever had.  
  
When Ian turns up a while later - he strolls in with a white Fedora on his messy bedhead and a white t-shirt stretched lovingly over his shoulders - Nina pauses a moment to admire him before she grabs his attention with the awesomeness that's their job.   
  
(Maybe it's not only the work itself that makes it not work at all.)  
  
She knows she's got a ridiculous crush on him. He's ten years older than her, and he's never going to look at her that way, but he's also a relentless flirt, so there are moments when he turns those blue eyes on her and she can feel the core of her body melting into gooey, malleable wax. She wonders if she told him how much he turns her on, if he'd forget for half an hour that she is his much younger (sisterly) co-star, and just, you know, take her out back to his trailer and fuck her brains out.  
  
God, that would just make this even more of the best time she's ever had.  
  
But she knows it's not going to happen, so she just flirts right back and has a good time and tries to ignore that ache that sometimes afflicts her chest.  
  
She sneaks up behind him and snags the hat off his head. He whips around, his eyes wide, but as she settles the hat on her own head, his eyes wander appreciatively over her, down from her eyes and then back up from her toes, slowly, measuringly. "Nice," he offers, inclining his head in approval.  
  
"We're shooting a cover for TV Guide," she blurts, gushing uncontrollably.  
  
"Shut up," he responds, which is exactly the reaction she was looking for.  
  
"I know, right?!"  
  
He picks her up and swings her around, hugging her tightly and whooping like a maniac.  
  
See, she sort of loves him for stuff like that. He gets more excited than she does, even though he's been doing this longer and he should be all cool as a cucumber about being on a hit show. He was on freaking  _LOST_  after all. He knows what it's like.  
  
As she's sliding down his chest, grinning into his face, one of his hands catches the hem of her shirt and it doesn't stop until her feet hit the floor.  
  
His fingers rest across the clasp of her bra, and she can feel her face flushing.  
  
(She can see his, too, which makes her even more embarrassed.)  
  
"Sorry," he says, stepping back, his hand quickly moving out into the open. He holds them both up like someone demanded they be in plain sight.  
  
She tips his hat down over her eyes and gives him a glance up through her lashes. "No harm, no foul," she quips.  
  
She flounces away, unintentionally stealing the hat. It's only later when she hangs it on a hook in her trailer that she feels even more disconcerted that she didn't give it back to him.  
  
It feels so high-schooly, and that's the last thing she wants him equating her with in his mind.  
  


  
  
Ian eyes the Crafts Services tables, trying to decide the best lunch combo for the day when Nina sidles up to him. They haven't been shooting together yet today, but he knows this afternoon, they have some make-out scenes between Katherine and Damon.  
  
(He'd be lying if he said he wasn't excited about it.)  
  
"Sorry I stole your hat," she says, and he can still see the discomfort on her face. He really hadn't been trying to cop a feel earlier, it had been an accident. But saying anything about it would probably make it seem like that exactly, so he just tries to ignore it.  
  
"Aww, don't worry about it. Looks a hell of a lot better on you, anyway." He grins at her and she ducks her head shyly. Sometimes he's knocked so breathless by her beauty, he can't help the compliments that just naturally pour from his mouth. She doesn't seem to ever get used to them either.  
  
"You should keep it," he says, and it's like he's out of control now, just saying the dumbest things to try to make up for the fact that she makes him nervous as hell.  
  
"What?" she asks, looking back up at him. "No," she says, shaking her head.  
  
"Oh, come on, you know I've got a million hats. And seriously, you looked cute in it."  
  
She narrows her eyes at him, and he can't help but think she must find him totally lame. "Okay," she finally says, but her tone still shows her uncertainty. "Thank you," she adds quietly.  
  
He changes the subject with, "So, we're making out today, you know?"  _Nice segue, Somerhalder._  
  
Her cheeks pinken beautifully, but she nods professionally. "Yeah, actually I wanted to ask you about that - since we haven't really, you know, done that before."  
  
"How do you and Paul do it?" he asks. He starts putting food on his plate, so he at least seems to be multi-tasking, when really how could he be thinking about anything else?  
  
"Well, we decided that Stefan would play it gentle with Elena, you know, and so we try to play their kisses very sweet, though, you know passionate when it's escalating. But, I've already been thinking about how differently Katherine would kiss-" 

She hesitates, and Ian knows she's on the same page as him, artistically speaking.

(If it somehow works as a benefit for his morbid curiosity about his co-star, who is he to deny fate?)  
  
"Right, exactly. A little more wanton, I'm thinking." He only looks at her peripherally as he says it, but she nods her agreement.  
  
"So..." she says leadingly.  
  
"So..." he parrots, turning his head to look at her fully. "Tongue?"  
  
She nods again, and does a pretty good job of making him think she's not aware that her face is completely red. "Tongue," she repeats.  
  
She walks away without getting anything to eat, and he ends up dumping his plate because the knots in his stomach are much too tight to get any food around.  
  
He's a professional. She's his co-star. His sexy, beautiful, painfully too-young-for-him co-star, whom he should not want to French kiss. It's just for the characters. They agree, Katherine and Damon would French kiss.  
  
(Katherine and Damon would do a lot of stuff he'd like to do to Nina, but Ian really tries not to dwell on that.)  
  


  
  
She invites him to come to her trailer at the end of the day - to give him back the hat. He turns her down, telling her he's already late for a date, and he's gotta run. "I was serious," he calls, jogging backward away from her. "Keep it. It's yours."  
  
He turns and runs to his car, not because he's got a date, but because he wants to go to her trailer and kiss her for real.  
  
As she was laying on top of him in the bed today, her legs on either side of his hips and her hair falling around her face in a way no cinematographer could orchestrate, it hadn't been hard at all to look at her like he was completely enamored. Watching the dailies afterward had been a little humiliating because he'd felt so transparent. Everyone had been beating him on the back with praise and he'd just let them all go on and on about how great he was. (Usually he poo-pooed all of that out of sheer determination to never ever think he's better than he actually is, but he just couldn't choke the words out today.)  
  
And then she'd leaned down and kissed him and her tongue had ghosted over the tip of his, inviting him into her mouth, and they'd seriously gotten that shot in only two takes, which was good, because if he got a hard-on with her, it would not be something he could joke his way out of. It's not like stuff like that didn't happen all the time with love scenes - he'd certainly been involved in far more gratuitous scenes - ones where the only clothes he'd had on was a sock over his cock - but it had just been work. And of course strategically placed  _everything_  to be sure that the line of distastefulness didn't get crossed.  
  
Nina is not even 21. She can't even fucking go into a bar in the States. (Though from what he gathered, she was no stranger to good beer because Canada was more reasonable about that law.) All the same, he just - oh, fuck it. He is  _so_  screwed. She's beautiful, and too young, and his dick doesn't give a flying fuck. Most of the time, neither does his heart, because she'll look at him just right and all he wants to do is romance her so badly; he can see the flowers lining her trailer, and the grand gestures he'd make, and the little gifts he'd give her so she actually knew he was giving her a gift - not stupid shit like letting her take his hat and then refusing to let her give it back.   
  
He sits in his Prius and debates with himself for a good five minutes. Finally his common sense wins out - the mantra about not mixing business with pleasure the one thing he can cling to in all the chaos of his mind.  
  
He can do this; he can ignore the obvious. He can forget about how she'd kissed him and how certain he'd been in that moment that maybe that's how Katherine might kiss Damon, but that was also how Nina kisses Ian.   
  


  
  
A week later, she shows up to the TV Guide photoshoot in black pants, a black sleeveless blouse, and his Fedora. (And a pair of black thigh-high boots that puts the kibosh to any self-preservation left to him.) The smile on her lips ignites something he's tried very hard to keep burning lowly, and when they go to the CW Christmas Party afterwards, he slings his arm around her neck for multiple photographs, and really any time he can do it without it being completely inappropriate.  
  
(The more cocktails he has, the more often it happens.)  
  
She's grinning at him as Kevin gives a speech about how great their season has been thus far, and he whispers in her ear, "You are fucking gorgeous in that hat."  
  
She giggles, and he realizes she's ingested some alcohol as well, because she's just a little looser than normal. She whispers back, "I kinda like you," and he's done.  
  
He drags her out of the main room, finds a deserted hallway and pushes her up against the wall. The hat comes off and her arms wrap around his neck and, he knows it's a terrible idea - but,  _god_ , she tastes delicious, her tongue slightly rum flavored, but mostly it's just Nina.  
  
He's totally crazy about her, and it's  _so_  wrong.  
  
(Which is probably why he's so crazy about her.)  
  
So he angles his head to the left and kisses her deeply and then when he pulls back to grab a little oxygen, he tilts his head to the right and gets another, equally wonderful taste, and she clings to him, helping him know that she's wanted it just as much as he has.  
  
He's sort of relieved, and terrified, at the same time.  
  
Finally, he wraps his hand around her jaw, pressing her head into the wall behind her, not allowing her mouth to follow his as he pulls away from her. "We really shouldn't do this," he says, even while his erection strains between them. He shifts his hips away, stepping back slightly to make his words more effective. She drops his gaze, licks her lips ( _oh, fuck_ ), and nods solemnly. "Yeah, right, okay," she murmurs.  
  
Her arms drop away from his shoulders and he feels the loss acutely. Girls are his weakness, always have been, but this feels like so much more than his normal state of infatuation.   
  
She slides away from him, leans down and scoops up the Fedora from the floor. She runs a hand through her hair and then places the hat gently over her head. "Have a Merry Christmas, Ian," she says.  
  
She leaves him standing there, and he's grateful for the empty hallway. He needs time to get his head on straight.  
  
(There's not enough time in the world for that.)  
  


  
  
Nina doesn't hear from him during the break, except for a text on Christmas Day. It's nothing more than  _Merry Christmas, tell your mother I said hello_ , and she doesn't tell her mother because she's pissed. Pissed at him for kissing her if he didn't mean it, and pissed at herself for drinking two beers and having two swallows of Steven's mixed drink when it was technically illegal and getting herself into  _that_  situation.  
  
It's easier to be mad at him though. She imagines the fights they could have, the one where she'd accuse him of not acting his age and being the reasonable one in the situation, but that only makes her realize that's exactly what he had done by putting a stop to it.  
  
So then she's mad at him for being mature and reasonable.  
  
By the time they go back to work on January 4th, she's decided to just pretend nothing happened. That's the best possible solution considering they have to see each other all the time and work together often.  
  
When she does see him, he's totally normal. Abnormally normal, ridiculously  _Ian_ , happy to see her, hugging her and giving her a wink as he goes off to shoot scenes with Paul while she's with Kat on a set across the lot.  
  
It's obvious he's decided the same thing, and so she just takes a few deep breaths and tells herself that's exactly what she wanted him to do. They'd made a tacit agreement. They are on the same page.  
  
(She desperately wants him to kiss her again, and never stop, please.)  
  


  
  
Five days later, it's her 21st birthday. The crew gets her a cake of course, and everyone brings her gifts she hadn't expected, including a lot of alcohol (she gets several  _you're legal now!_  remarks). She feels overwhelmed and grateful for such a wonderful working environment. (Julie had put a plastic tiara on her head as she came into the restaurant.)  
  
Tears even sting her eyes, and she's embarrassed by her overt reaction.   
  
"I got you a little something," Ian says, sliding into the chair next to her.   
  
His shoulder presses into hers and she looks at him with a sad smile. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asks. He squints at her. "You're not having one of those  _OMG, I'm old!_  moments, are you? I'll have to kick your ass if that's the case."  
  
Nina laughs and shakes her head because he actually spelled out O.M.G. "No, of course not. I was just - it's overwhelming, you know? So much goodness."  
  
He glances around the room, to their friends and co-workers, some of which are still eating dinner while others have made their way out on to the dance floor before turning back to her. He presses his arm more firmly against hers. "It's all good. I get it."  
  
The package he set down in front of her is a small box, maybe three inches wide by about eight inches long. It looks like a jewelry box for a necklace, and she wonders what it could be. "Open it," he encourages when she just stares at it.  
  
She tugs the red ribbon loose from the white box and shakes out the bottom half. It hits the table with a soft thud and she can see two tickets inside. Picking them up, she sees that they're for the current exhibit at the Atlanta Art Museum. She gasps and looks up at him. "Oh, Ian. Oh," she says, her fingers covering her mouth. They'd had this conversation, weeks ago now, before Christmas break, and of course he remembered.  
  
(Because he's trying to kill her with how sweet he can be.)  
  
"I thought maybe we could go together."  
  
She just stares at him, puzzling over the fact that he seems to be asking her on a date, or if this is more of the  _she's like my little sister_  stuff. (She wonders if he usually wants to make out with his sister.)  
  
"Or, you know, you could just take your mom, or whatever." He clears his throat and then flashes a big smile at her.  
  
It suddenly clicks into place for her. Maybe he'd decided initially to ignore what was between them, but right now, it was obvious he'd made another, different decision.   
  
That means it's time for her to make the same one, or stick with her original plan.  
  
"I'd love to go with you," she says. She looks him right in the eye and a few beats pass where she thinks he might kiss her right in front of everyone.  
  
Suddenly the group around them starts to sing, and the huge chocolate cake she'd seen when she first came in is set down on the table in front of her. She flushes while they all sing, and then she closes her eyes and blows out the candles. She gets all of them in one breath and everyone claps loudly.  
  
More pictures are snapped, and Ian wraps his arm around her neck as he's prone to do.  
  
But after the camera's gone, he doesn't move away. She leans against him and says, "So what happened to this being a bad idea?"  
  
He clears his throat again and slants his eyes towards her. "Sometimes you just can't stop thinking about something, even if it's a bad idea."  
  
"I think maybe it's a good idea," she offers, turning into him just a little so she can look into his face. "But let's be smart about it, okay?"  
  
His lips twitch into a little smile. "You mean, Miss Dobrev, you don't put out on the first date?"  
  
Looking into his eyes, she can't really say that's what she meant exactly, but she lets him lead. "And maybe everyone around here doesn't need to know about it."  
  
"Okay," he says, nodding.  
  
"But whatever happens, I'm keeping your hat, forever."  
  
He grins. "Yeah, but I might need to borrow it from time to time."

**Author's Note:**

> [set during the shooting of 1x13 "Children of the Damned" and 1x14 "Fool Me Once," which I've arbitrarily decided were shot during December 2009 and January 2010]


End file.
